Improvisation was the blood and bone of jazz, and in the classic, New Orleans jazz it was collective improvisation in which each performer, seemingly going his own melodic way, played in harmony, dissonance, or counterpoint with the improvisations of his colleagues. Quite unlike ragtime, which was written down in many cases by its composers and could be repeated note for note (if not expression for expression) by others, jazz was a performer's not a composer's art.

A truly appreciative child will break, lose, spoil, or fondle to death any really successful gift within a matter of minutes.

Cynicism is the intellectual cripple's substitute for intelligence. It is the dishonest businessman's substitute for conscience. It is the communicator's substitute, whether he is advertising man or editor or writer, for self-respect.

Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it.

The Art Snob will stand back from a picture at some distance, his head cocked slightly to one side

Any real New Yorker is a you-name-it-we-have-it-snob whose heart brims with sympathy for the millions of unfortunates who through misfortune, misguidedness or pure stupidity live anywhere else in the world.

The shaping of taste is essentially the science of merchandising, whether of detergents or cars or books or objects of fine and decorative art.